Stretch Before or After Lifting? What Science Recommends

If you cling to the steadfast belief that you should be stretching before you lift weights, it’s unlikely that anyone will blame you. You probably come by that belief honestly, having been led in pregame stretches prior to your youth sports events and physical education classes. For you, stretching before you lift weights is as natural as breathing.

Well, your natural habit of pre-workout stretching is almost certainly doing you more harm than good. Here are three critical reasons why you should save your stretching for after your weight training session rather than forcibly loosening your muscles ahead of time.

Pre-Workout Stretching can confuse your muscles

The link between your mind and your body is as strong as it is subconscious. When you pick up a weight, your body has an instinctive understanding of where its natural stopping points are. This means your muscles are prepared to step up their efforts to control the weight, and also not to allow it to descend to a point where it can’t be controlled.

Preemptively stretching your muscles can lengthen them in a way that destabilizes your mind-muscle connection, and on an exercise like the squat or leg press, your looser muscles may lower the weight to a point where you lack the power to return it to its starting point, or lose control. For this reason, including a warmup set or two is a safer strategy for preparing your muscles without compromising their preparedness.

Pre-Workout Stretching can injure your muscles

Most people who stretch their muscles are doing so to prevent injuries, but the stretching itself may ultimately be the cause of an injury. This is because stretching when your muscles fibers are cold is an excellent way to place them in a position where they are more likely to snap than they are to expand.

An apt comparison that is used in these cases involves a rubber band. When rubber is in a warm atmosphere, or at least at room temperature, it is likely to extend safely. However, when rubber has been stored in the cold, they are more likely to snap. Sadly, you muscles react similarly, which is why you are advised to engage in your stretching at the tail end of your weight training session

Pre-Workout Stretching can lower your power potential

The reason yoga feels like a workout unto itself is because the act of forcibly stretching your muscles almost always involves an isometric contraction. When this happens, your muscles are forced to endure stress while in a stable position, which has a pre-weakening effect on them right before you begin weight training.

Since most experienced weightlifters train with their heaviest sets the instant their workouts commence, stretching right before you lift may leave you wondering where all your power wandered off to. This is yet another reason why stretching should be reserved for after all of the lifting has concluded.

Definitely stretch after you lift

The good news is that stretching after you lift weights has so many benefits attached to it that it should make your decision of when to stretch very simple. Post-workout stretching is associated with reduced soreness, posture improvement, and improved flexibility to accompany your newfound gains in strength.

In essence, stretching after you lift comes with a stack of benefits to your body, with none of the downsides associated with pre-workout stretching. So if you have an instinct to stretch, that’s an excellent drive to have; just make sure you delay that activity until the hardest work is already out of the way.

Takeaways

1. Stretching before you lift weights can disorient your muscles, resulting in a loss of the innate connection between your mind and your body’s usual stopping points.

2. Prior to exercising, your muscles are cold rather than warm, and at their most likely point of being injured. Stretching a cold muscle increases the likelihood of an injury.

3. Stretching before you lift weights can weaken your muscles, thereby lowering the likelihood that you’ll be able to lift weights that are as heavy as you envisioned.

4. Post-workout stretching is advisable, because the muscles are already warm, blood flow has been optimized, and the heavy weightlifting has been concluded.